Sydney Heroin Injecting Room Ready for Business

From CDC National Prevention Information Network

March 16, 2001

Opposition to Australia's first official heroin injection drug center -- coming from the local chamber of commerce all the way up to the Australian Prime Minister John Howard, Pope John Paul II, and the United Nations--has kept the clinic's doors closed so far, but Ingrid Van Beek, the center's medical director, is determined to open within a month. Van Beek's unique center is a
state-of-the-art clinic developed by using money taken from criminals and is located in the heart of a famous red-light and drug district in Sydney known as "the Cross," or Sydney's King Cross. The clinic is designed to permit only one way entry and exit, through a reception room, injection booth, and a recovery
room, with medical, counseling, and security personnel on hand at all times to monitor and control activity. Van Beek's concern is to target the street users who have become more violent over time by using other drugs as substitutes for heroin and who are most at risk for overdosing.

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